Public and private bills

Public bills are the most common bills introduced in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. If they are enacted, they become public general acts (in contrast with local and personal acts). Private bills create two types of act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The first are acts for the benefit of individuals (known as private or personal acts) which have historically often dealt with divorces or granting British nationality to foreigners, but in modern times are generally limited to authorising marriages which would otherwise not be legal. The most recent such act was made in 1987.f The second type are public acts for the benefit of organisations, or authorising major projects such as railways or canals, or granting extra powers to local authorities (known as local acts). Private bills were used in the nineteenth century to create corporations and grant monopolies. They are still used in relation to large infrastructure projects, such as HS2, where law is being created primarily to give effect to rights and powers being exercised by a private (even if largely state owned) entity. There is another classification known as a hybrid instrument which shares characteristics of both public and private bills. Hybrid bills become public acts. ==Canada==

Divorce in Canada prior to the passage of the Divorce Act of 1968 was sometimes handled by private laws. If unavailable by administrative or judicial means, it was possible to obtain a legislative divorce by application to the Senate of Canada, which reviewed and investigated petitions for divorce, which would then be voted upon by the Senate and subsequently made into law. ==United States==

Public bills are also the most common type of law made by the United States Congress and other (e.g. state) legislatures in the US. This clause does not, however, prohibit private laws altogether. It leaves room for the introduction and passage of private bills which are favorable to persons or corporations. This type of aversion to legislatures An example of a beneficiary of a private bill was Mary Dimmick Harrison, widow of President Benjamin Harrison, to whom Congress granted a considerable $5,000 annual pension in 1938 (). Presidential widows had traditionally been awarded a pension, but Mary had married Harrison only after he had left office (she was also 25 years his junior, and was his first wife's niece), and thus Congressional intervention was relatively controversial, even for a private bill. Congress has also awarded citizenship or otherwise assisted thousands of individuals with immigration via private bills (see list of people who have benefited from United States immigration laws). In many cases, such individuals were not otherwise qualified under the immigration laws (including due to quota limits), or the immigration laws were not being timely processed in their favor. Congress often intervened to benefit those who had unusual extenuating circumstances or had performed meritorious service to the United States. In the United States, private bills were previously common. Historically, private bills made up to 1% of all legislation per session (such as in 1904), but by the 2000's, less than 0.1% of legislation concerned private bills. By the 2010's, virtually no private bills were being passed. Federal agencies are now able to deal with most of the issues that were previously dealt with under private bills as these agencies have been granted sufficient discretion by the United States Congress to deal with exceptions to the general legislative scheme of various laws. The kinds of private bills that are still introduced include grants of citizenship to individuals who are otherwise ineligible for normal visa processing; alleviation of tax liabilities; armed services decorations; and veteran benefits. ==See also==